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Hill, Carpenter win Sainte Anne downhill World Cup

August 2, 2014
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Australian Sam Hill smashed the competition in the men’s World Cup downhill mountain bike race at Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec. Hill finished in a time of four minutes, 10.566 seconds. This marks Hill’s third victory at the Mont Sainte Anne World Cup, and his first victory at any World Cup since 2009, when he won the title.

The Chain Reaction Cycles rider was second fastest from the start, but picked up the pace by the mid point of the course. Hill was sixth fastest in qualifying, where most riders were slower than their race times. Hill finished his race run nearly 14 seconds faster than his qualifying run.

Josh “Ratboy” Bryceland was fastest in qualifying, and finished runner up in Saturday’s race. Riding for the Santa Cruz Syndicate, the British rider was fastest through the first split, but couldn’t match Hill’s pace through the bottom half of the course.

Fellow Brit Danny Hart finished third overall, riding for the Giant Factory Off-Road team.

Gee Atherton struggled with both qualifying and race runs after a crash that injured his wrist during training for the Mont Sainte Anne race. Despite this, Atherton set the fourth fastest speed – nearly 60km/h through the speed trap – on his way to a tenth place overall, 4.5 seconds back from the winner.

Canadian Steve Smith hoped to repeat his 2013 victory at Mont Sainte Anne, but missed his chance after injuring his ankle during training earlier in the week. Devinci Global Racing teammate Mark Wallace was the top Canadian, finishing 23rd overall.

Britons went one-two in the women’s downhill, with Manon Carpenter setting a blistering pace over the final portion of the course to edge out Rachel Atherton. Carpenter set a final time of 4:47.285 riding for Madison Saracen Factory Team.

Atherton, riding for GT Factory Racing was fastest through the first two thirds of the course, but lost time through the bottom portion of the course.

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French rider Emmeline Ragot of the Lapierre Gravity republic finished third, less than 5/100ths of a second back from Atherton.

Three Canadians finished in the top ten. Micayla Gatto held a podium spot briefly, but as the fastest riders crossed the finish, Gatto’s position eroded down to a sixth place. It was a strong ride from the Pivot Factory team rider, who soundly beat 2014 Canadian DH champion Vaea Verbeeck, who rode to seventh place.

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Casey Brown finished tenth, riding for the Bergamont Hayes World Team.

Conditions on course were extremely good. While dry, dust was not too bad thanks to rains earlier in the week.

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